I am based in the UK and have been photographing properties for 5 years now; the last 3 full-time. 18 months ago, I retired my Canon 6D and went down to the Sony A6000 with the Samyang (Rokinon) f2.0 lens. I love how lightweight and portable the Sony system is. I am now looking for a full-frame addition to my kit and was looking at the a7ii but today, Sony has released details of the a7III so I will have a look at that when it gets here in the UK. Is anyone shooting with the a7III? Are they happy with it?

I just recently watched Tony Northrup’s comparison of the Sony a7III to other cameras and think Tony answers your question nicely.

5 Responses to “How Does the Sony A7III Compare to Other Cameras?”

The reviews I have read question Sony’s marketing. If they make such a fantastic camera as the a9 why on Earth would they make the A7III and sell it for half ?? the cost of an A9, or why would anyone buy an A9 now?

I’ve been using Canon since the A2-E (which coincidentally had Eye control AF) and finally made the decision to move to another manufacturer mostly because I believe I need to have an excellent video and stills camera Sony won out because of the 6 month old A7R3 and it’s many features. One of those features is the ability to shoot in crop mode which allows me to shoot at 17 megapixels, full frame 42 megapixels images are overkill in Real Estate, when I need very high quality for commercial work I’ll have it. The new A73 will be a better camera for low light than the R version and it should have the same dynamic range, it will most likely be my # two camera when I can afford it.
My complaint with the Camera is with the menu system, I know Sony consults with pro photographers in order to improve the cameras over recent years and it does have very nice options but the menus need to have more explanations built in to the interface similar to what Canon offers, etc.
I’m currently using 3 or 4 Canon flashes minus the radio slave option so I will be trying out Godox tt685 very soon.
Looks like I will have more Canon equip to sell…

I have the A7ii, mostly because I wanted a write-off, but also because it’s an outstanding camera. That said, for most of my real estate needs, it’s complete overkill. The one area where it really shines though for RE is video. It’s by far my favorite video device, especially when coupled with the 12-24 4.
But frankly for stills, I am just as happy to shoot any of the basic A7’s, and I would probably just as soon use the new A7iii, now that you can shoot log and Cine4 video on it.
It’s fun to have the A7ii, but because it is so nice, it’s spends more time in the bag then out shooting, whereas I literally wear an A7 out.

I jumped ship to Sony a year ago from Canon – and I am thinking of abandoning it and heading back hat in hand to Canon

why ?

1 – Unless you have 2 cameras fitted with the two lenses you use all the time – switching lenses with a mirrorless camera is no joy, all trouble. Issue being any dust – and i’m talking microscopic – on the lens, inside the camera or anywhere will show on the image. With no mirror the sensor is there open and ready to take on anything.

Most of us have to change lenses multiple times a day in the field so it isn’t feasible to keep it squeaky clean always

2 – Battery life – my canon would go all day shooting 4-5 houses 500 shots ands still back up for another day

my Sony battery is like an hour glass – i can watch it tick away so quickly

3 – LCD monitor is super sensitive – have it on auto and every time you even think to go near it it switches to view finder mode . Very frustrating when i am right in a corner trying to get a shot and i am behind the camera with the flip screen out – The image goes blank

( yes I can have the screen on all the time though …. refer to item 2 – the battery is already draining on normal use

4 – Sony lenses are expensive – the metabones is good but doesn’t offer autofocus or the inbuilt steadying feature

5 – No choice in image size – 40+ MB is way too much – shd be an option to choose smaller sizes

I’ve been shooting real estate for 7 years, 5 full time and all on Canon gear. I was due to retire my 2 5DmkII’s and decided to jump ship to an a7Riii. While I really like the Sony it has taken a bit to get use to and in the first week I was convinced that I had made a huge mistake.

First off, let me say that I shoot brackets and use Enfuse to blend. On the Canon I think I was shooting 9.9 MB RAW files while on the Sony the smallest option is 42 MB. The Canon only allowed 3 bracket images (then manually adjusting to the next set) so I welcomed the Sony allowing for 3, 5 or 9 (but why not 7?!?). If I shoot 9 exposures at one stop increments I usually kill the first and last photos but 5 sometimes doesn’t give the dynamic range I want (although I have started trying 5 shots at 2 stops apart). Anyway, a stack created in Enfuse/Lightroom can run 200-300 MB each depending on the number of exposures, totally killing my build time which normally I do between shoots. I’ll have to look into the crop setting mentioned by Geoff P above, that could be a big help.

The in-camera menus are EXTENSIVE, I have no idea how to use a lot of the features of this camera and sometimes miss the simplicity of the Canon. But to be fair I was using nearly 10 year old bodies so I know a lot has changed since then. I also feel that Canon has better color science, I’ve had a bit of trouble making the adjustment and all my presets are just a little off. And just general use of the camera seems like everything is set up backwards compared to the Canon. I know these are personal opinions and are based on the familiarity of the 5DmkII; if you picked up a Sony as a first dSLR then switched to Canon you’d have a learning curve to the layout as well.

All in all I’m happy with the camera, just trying to get it dialed in before I get swamped.